


Unspoken

by Charlie9646



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Difference, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, Health Issues, Mental Illness, Post War, Self-Hatred, Severus Snape Lives, Smut, bigoted parents, soulmate, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25022317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlie9646/pseuds/Charlie9646
Summary: The truest of feelings are sometimes left unspoken.Hermione Jean Granger finds out she’s what she expected a Omega, but her dying Alpha has more secrets then even Harry Potter knew.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Luna Lovegood, Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Comments: 18
Kudos: 99
Collections: FtCF: Transgender Characters





	Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:**
> 
> Self Prompted
> 
> Thank you Zorak23 for Betaing this. And RavenpuffLove for listening to more of my crazy ideas.

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us.” J.R.R Tolkien

Hermione wasn’t shocked when she realized she was an Omega ; if anything it was to be expected . I t was typical, normal even. Ron was an Alpha and she was an Omega. Right was right and wrong was wrong, until it wasn’t. The man she expected to be her mate smelled like rotten eggs. There was no way to be kind about  it - t he very sight of Ronald Weasley now turned her stomach, because Hermione knew the smell would soon follow.

The man didn’t take it well. There was no other way to put it. They hadn’t spoken in weeks, though to be honest Hermione had no desire to.

Harry clearly felt as if he had been split into two running back and forth between the former couple trying desperately to convince them to talk. Harry deserved it -  ‘considering he had done the same to her  during the Triwizard tournament - turning him into a strange version of a bloody owl.

Hermione was walking by the hospital wing when she smelled it. Something that smelled like the woods, fresh herbs, and smoke. It was without second thought that her feet carried her to that smell, the one that drew her like a siren’s song to the farthest corner of the back of the room.

The man was laying there under a tucked - in sheet. His throat bandaged in stark white wrappings, his skin  was sickly, his lips bloodless,  and  his black hair was clean, brushed out and tucked behind his ears. His eyes  were closed .

The man was  _ Severus Snape. _

Hermione didn’t know how long the man had been like this ; she  had assumed he had been cured. She had assumed the man had escaped the world that hated him and Severus honestly seemed to hate. But, no that did not happen and Hermione would be grateful for that till the day that she died. Severus was her Alpha and nothing would change that. For whatever strange reason fate had decided that this man was her soulmate. Hermione found herself falling into the chair next to the bed.

“Why didn’t you tell me you silly bloody fool?” Hermione whispered. “You must have known, and yet… Nothing.”

Severus silent, as if he was sleeping, though if it wasn’t for the rising and falling of his chest Hermione would think that the man was dead. She took his pale long-fingered hand into her own, it was as cold as death. Chilling her heart, the worry seeping through her like a bucket of ice washing over her. Would Hermione be one of those poor horrible Omegas who never got a happy ending and spent their whole lives alone?

“Ms. Granger, why are you here?” Madam Pomfrey asked her. “Professor Snape has been here for months, with little to know change and no one has come to visit him for months. Though I am sure he would prefer it that way.”

The woman rested her hand on Hermione’s shoulder. The woman seemed to want to bring comfort to her, but unknowingly only caused her more frustration reminding her what type of life her mate had lived - a rather lonely one. A horrible wailing sound filled Hermione’s ears, and in that instant she realized that the sounds were coming from  _ her _ . Hermione was the one who was crying and it was like emotion bubbling up just under the surface pouring out like it was from a sieve.

“Child, please tell me what’s wrong?” The Mediwitch pleaded, clutching Hermione’s shoulder even tighter. And then , as if the woman could read the bushy haired witch’s mind , it hit her. “Merlin, no. Child it cannot be. It cannot be. Fate would not be so unkind to you. Not after all you have done.”

“When has fate ever been kind to anyone?” She hissed, pulling away from the woman, wiping her tears away with a hand that did not hold Severus’. “Fate is not about kindness, fate is about twisted threads about a path that we could never truly understand. It is what it is and there is nothing anyone can do to change it.”

“But, child?” Promfrey asked. “What will you do if he never wakes up?”

“I do not know,  Madam , but all I know is this is where I am supposed to be , ” Hermione insisted . “ R ight here by my mate’s side. Where I should have been from the beginning .” 

“Maybe you will help him pull through, maybe you're exactly what he needs.”

“What is that?”

“A reason to fight to come back to us,” she said softly. “Hope is all we have in this moment.”

“Wars can be won with hope,” the young witch said. “Hope is a rather powerful thing, isn’t  it ?”

“It is,”  replied  Madam Pomfrey.

Hermione held onto Severus’ hand ;  if she  had been  the praying type she would have prayed.  I nstead , she ran  through the facts she knew , both the good and the bad.

One : Alphas and Omegas were perfect for one another.

Two : Severus had not woken up for four months.

Three : The poison is what was keeping himself asleep.

And lastly, four : Magic could do things when all else seemed lost.

  
  


****************************

  
  


Severus felt like he was drowning, buried under an ocean that seemed to go for miles. As  if  the weight of the past and present was simply crushing him. He didn’t know how or why he had gotten here. Memories of the past and present were on equal footing , twisted and blended all on the same bloody plane.

Memories he desperately wanted to forget. His father played with him before Severus had gone and ruined things , b ack when the world seemed right. Back before he had came out and his bigoted Muggle father saw him as not only a wretched genderless thing  as well as  a magical thing that was not same breed as him. Severus was outed on both fronts - not choosing to tell his father either of his secrets, both being stripped from without much choice. He knew it in his heart that his mother blamed him for his father’s hatred. Once she outright told him that she would have preferred to have no child over one like him. 

It did not matter that there were happy memories , b ecause the actions afterwards had been poisoned by them.

Then the memory was gone, replaced by one that was both worse and better in many ways. It was when Severus found out he was an Alpha. Alphas and Omegas existed to make more children and yet he could not do such things. His thoughts from the past echoed through his head ; he was a freak. A freak for his blood status that was neither one or the other. He was neither a Muggleborn with all their faults. He was neither a Pureblood with the heritage and wonder of that. He was not one of the half bloods like Dumbledore.

Severus Snape in his stupidity saw himself as  ‘ other ,’ as some sort of tortured creature that was nothing. Not Witch or Wizard. Not Muggle. Not Man or Woman. Not Alpha or Omega. He was something else and that was utterly stupid looking back.

Severus found himself laughing and crying, and then it was that he heard it.

Crying, not his own, but someone else. Someone who needed him. Someone who Severus needed to return to.  _ His Omega _ . Hermione.

And he had to get back to her.

  
  


****************************

  
  


Hermione barely ate, she barely slept, and she did not attend any of her classes. Harry was starting to get worried about her. She knew it even if her friend did not say it. The man had never been good about hiding his feelings and he was even worse at lying. Harry would join her after supper, sitting next to her in his own chair, usually bringing his home work with him. Sitting there silently a board on his lap,  while  writing his essays or reading his textbooks.

Hermione knew her friend hated her mate ;  she understood that , even respected it to a point, but it did not change her own feelings. It would be like asking Harry why he loved Ginny - he just did - nothing else could be said or figured out. They were meant for each other and nothing would change that fact. Luna and Draco would sometimes join her as well. They seemed to be mates as well, which was nearly just as shocking as Hermione’s own situation.

But, they also were strange in their own way Draco was the Omega and Luna the Alpha. Neither said much, but there wasn’t honestly much to say. Hermione didn’t want hope about him waking up, hope would only lead to heartbreak if Severus did not. All she could was be here for him and see what was going to happen. Luna softly shoved a tray in Hermione’s lap.

“You should eat,” the girl said. “You need to keep up your strength for you and for him.”

Hermione sighed, staring at the pale blonde fairy-like woman.

“I don’t know if I will be able to survive this,” Hermione murmured. “I just don’t have any words.”

“You have to, Hermione, because when he wakes up?” Luna mused, “he’s going to need you.”

“We don’t even know if he’s going to wake up.” She said, wiping the tears from her eyes with her sleeve. “Or even when.”

“Don’t give up hope. Something says he will wake up. It will just take time.”

Time was a wretched thing. Sometimes it passed  so  slowly you counted every single tick of the clock. But other times it was a cruel mistress , passing so quickly it felt like sand running through your fingers. And yet other times you simply wished you held onto every single second.

Hermione did not know what was worse ; for this to continue on as it was , or f or it to stop and her mate to die. Or worse  if it continue d on and Severus  woke up, w ould he only stay with her because it is what fate sat out for them? Would Severus abandon her? Some Alphas did that, not caring about the pain that they caused to their Omegas. Or would the man stay with her and would they make a life together?

Only time would tell and it seemed that was all Hermione had in this instant, time. Time to think, time to worry, and time to hope. Even if she tried her best not to do the latter.

*****************************

Severus found himself on a beach, laying in the sand, sun in his eyes and the sound of the waves slamming into the shore. Holding his hand up to his face he stared at it, still the same long-fingered , pale as milk hand that it always was. Growing up he never really got a chance to go to the shore - that was for other people - people with money. People like the Potters, the Malfoys and the Blacks. And their counterparts in the Muggle world :  the Evans family.

By the time Severus  w as an adult  and  had a chance to do those things , he had no one to go with and a lack of desire to do so. Sullen and angry was all that he had been . H ot - headed. Cruel. But most of all he was self-hating. His body, his lack of ability to save Lily , and the fact that it seemed every single bloody choice Severus seemed to make was the wrong one.

Part of Severus wanted to stand up and walk over to the shore. To walk along it and be a little bit like the person he once was. The one who had been buried under the tragedy of his life. Severus might do that, but right now he was going to enjoy the sunshine and rest.

He heard it then people talking. Wait, Severus thought, was that Draco?

Draco was the closest thing that he had ever had to a child. The one who he had read stories to, tucked into bed at night, and  who  used to follow him around like a little duck.

Hermione you need to get some sleep. You can’t sleep in the chair. At least go lay in the cot, you can still be near him. I will keep an eye on Severus and wake you up if anything changes.

_ Hermione!  _ Severus thought,  _ he needed to get back to Hermione! _

Severus’ eyes opened, but instead of getting back to reality? Lily of all people was standing over him. Sun at her back, red hair streaming in the wind, smile on her face, bright green eyes, dressed in jeans and a jumper.

“Severus,” Lily said. “You sure aren’t in Kansas anymore, are you?”

“Help me up, would you?” Severus asked her. “Where are we and how do I leave this place? I need to get back. I need to get back to Hermione.”

Lily helped him up, gripping his pale arm with her small hand. Severus brushed the sand off his clothing, black slacks and a button-down shirt.

“So many questions, where to start?” She asked, but clearly not expecting an answer. “Well this is your own mind. You were trapped in it by the poison. You're still alive of course and sometimes you can even hear things around you, but this all of your own mind’s creation.”

“So not only am I dying from the poison, but I have also lost my bloody mind,” he growled, not caring to speak to Lily ; she wasn’t real anyway. Severus stared out at the horizon before him. “You and this aren’t real.”

“Just because it’s in your head, doesn’t mean it’s not  _ real _ ,” Lily deadpanned, clearly not pleased with him. “Come on, we have many places to be and only so much time.”

Severus looking back admitted he used to follow Lily around like some sort of lost puppy, and fell into the pattern without thought. It was comfortable to be holding her hand, even if it wasn’t real. 

Petunia once compared him to a stray cat that people just kept feeding, but you couldn’t seem to touch it. He had been so angry when she said that, huffing and snippy. She had been right, but hindsight was twenty-twenty. Lily was the same age she had been the last time he had seen her. Right before she had married Potter. Lily was young and so full of life, like some sort of live wire, a spark that no one could seem to put out. Severus knew now what he had not known when the woman was alive.

Lily Jane Evans-Potter was not his mate and that was a good thing. She was not the person who his life was tied to. Lily was not his perfect match, and that was okay. Her heart belonged to someone else and so did his.

_ Hermione _ , Severus thought,  _ I need to get back to her. _

“Lily, I am sorry, but I need to get back to Hermione,” Severus said, firmly, pulling his hand out from hers stopping dead in his tracks. “I-she’s-my she’s my Omega and you of all people should understand exactly what that means.”

“I do,” she said, patting his arm, trying to reassure him. “All you have to do, Sev is think of her and step off the shore.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep, but the first step is always the hardest, isn’t it?”

“It is,” he whispered. “And I am assuming I have to do it all alone?”

“Nope, because she’s waiting for you. Hermione is right there you just have to reach out and she will be there.”

Severus took a deep breath, shutting his eyes, the sand under his bare feet. The first step was always the hardest. Long ago he wanted to see the ocean and if this worked, Severus promised himself he would see it in real life. Sighing softly he took that first step instead of feeling the waves, Severus was falling, tumbling through what felt like time and space, but was only his mind. Then it was as if every single thing was clicking back into place and all he could see was a bright light that blinded him.

Was he finally back to reality? Severus thought.

  
  


*****************************

Draco insisted Hermione try to get some sleep,  and  she did  so begrudgingly. After tossing and turning, twisting the blanket around her into knots, Hermione gave up. She heard a couple of sets of footsteps, one loud and the other quite soft. The people who Hermione assumed had just walked into the room started to speak.

“Does Hermione know what Snape is?” The voice was clearly male, possibly Remus?

“I don’t believe that’s any of your business, considering your own  _ situation _ ,” Draco snapped. “They are mates, and in the end that’s all that matters.”

“Both of you be quiet,” Madam Pomfrey growled. “If you would like to continue this conversation, do so outside in the corridor. Not my hospital wing. My patients and Ms.Granger are both resting.”

Two sets of footsteps left the room, but all Hermione could think with her rather tired mind was, what was Remus talking about?

It didn’t matter what Severus  was , it would not change the fact that he was her Alpha. Nothing, not even if the man suddenly became the next Dark Lord would change such a fact. The bond between mates could not be broken no matter what. But she knew in her heart fate would not match her with someone like that. Severus might be many things, but he was not a monster. Part of her wanted to go and chase after Remus and Draco and ask them what they meant, but instead she simply stood up and went back to her place by Severus’ bed.

His hand moved.

Surely it was only Hermione’s mind that was playing tricks on her.

Severus groaned, the sound was soft and choking through his damaged throat.

That wasn’t a figment of her imagination.

Then Severus’ black eyes opened. He was tired, groggy, body limp and limbs rather weak. Hermione’s words seemed caught in her throat, she tried desperately to say something but no words came out.

Luna looked over her upside down book at her friend, a small smile spreading on her lips. The gentle girl radiated serenity ; it nearly came of her in waves. Luna possibly wasn’t as crazy as she seemed, even if she wore a bottle cap necklace at the moment.

“See?” Luna asked, gently “didn’t I tell you everything would be alright? I swear it, my friend . H appiness is coming, you just have to let it in.”

*************************

  
  


It took weeks for Severus to be able to speak. His body was weak, limbs rather colt-like. Hermione was there, though most days he didn’t know who she even was. It made her heart lurch at the fact of such things. In every single bit of her heart, she wished that she could at least take some of his pain and the burden of Severus’ body and soul.

That could not happen though, there was no magic to do such a thing. But Hermione, however, could be there for him as she was now. Hermione wrapped her arm tightly around Severus’ narrow frame as the man nearly fell into the chair in front of them.

The man’s pale face went into his pale hands, his breath coming out in harsh puffs as he struggled to catch his breath. Hermione knelt in front of him gently pulling Severus’ hands away.

“Are you okay?” Hermione asked. “Hey, I can get you something if you need it.”

“Leave me be,” Severus croaked, shoving her hands away. His voice hoarse and rough. His eyes bloodshot and like black pinpricks. He clearly was in pain in more ways than one. “Why are you even here, Granger? Why do you even care about me?”

“Because you are my mate. My Alpha. I love you, Severus, I love you because we are two halves of a whole,” she said softly. “I will be whatever you need me.”

“I need you to leave me alone,” he hissed. His long black stringy hair, hung untamed over one eye. “You don’t get it, do you? I cannot be what you need me to be. I am not the Alpha who can be what you need me to be. I am damaged goods and you deserve better than I can give. So go find someone else.”

Severus shoved her back, causing Hermione to be rather unsteady, her hand reaching out to the floor to steady herself without much thought. The cold tile of the hospital wing floor under her fingers, was both jarring and rather uncomfortable. Thoughts ran through her mind like sparks from a wand. The old Hermione, the one who cared what people thought of her, might have taken the hint and left Severus be. But, this wasn’t the old Hermione. This woman was not the girl who cared what people thought of her.

Sometimes she wondered if something was wrong with her. Hermione had never been the typical Omega. Never having been one for the weak and meek that the secondary sex tended to be. Severus himself used to call her the insufferable little know-it-all. Ron called her the pushy bookworm. Harry called her the bulldozer. Maybe they all were right looking back. Some people believed that Omegas should not be that way, but not Hermione’s parents. They encouraged their daughter to be whatever she wanted to be. The world was hers for the taking, Hermione just had to reach out and snatch it.

Hermione knew Severus’ experience was likely different than hers - not only because of his age - but because of his upbringing. Because of his background, because of how magical folk raised their children. Something else was under the surface likely added to why the man had said the words that he did, but it wasn’t her place to dig if Severus did not want to tell her.

“I am not the perfect Omega anymore than you are the perfect Alpha, maybe that is why fate stuck us together,” Hermione said, shutting her eyes, unwilling to face the coldness of the person who everyone seemed to believe was born to love her. Fate, people told her, did not give you things that you could not handle. “Whatever it is, Severus, we can make it through it.”

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life with a freak?” Severus snarled. “I am-am something else. Something that’s horrid and gross to most people.”

“Someone who is my other half is not gross no matter what the world says!” She snapped, nostrils flaring, reaching to take his hand into her own. “I don’t care what the world thinks.”

“Do you care about having children?” He asked, harshly, crossing his arms over his chest. “And if you don’t now, you will likely want them one day.”

“Why are you even bringing children up?” Hermione questioned, knowing that she could not hide the shock on her face, even though she tried to. “I…Want children one day, possibly, but you know what? There are very many bloody ways to have them.” The part came out as a hiss.

Taking a few deep breaths, she placed her small hand on his pale cheek, feeling the small amount of stubble under her fingers. Hermione had a feeling about what it was. The way Remus and Draco had talked. Pomfrey and how she behaved, the old photo that Harry had found in Severus’ things when they thought he wasn’t going to survive. But that didn’t change the fact it wasn’t her place to speak for him. If Severus did not want to tell her it was his place to do so. If he wanted to that was.

If this match was actually going to work, if they were going to be able to have truly happy lives, honesty was going to have  to be a part of it. Hermione knew that in every single fiber of herself. Loving someone wasn’t easy, it wasn’t supposed to be. Loving someone was not for the faint of heart. And Hermione was willing to stand by him to see the light and goodness in his heart and soul even if Severus was not willing to do that himself.

“Severus, you can tell me what has you all up in knots and I will promise you that it will not send me running no matter how much you worry it will,” she said, softly.

“I am somewhere in between. I am the broken Alpha, the one who should not be. The creature that is neither man nor woman. You deserve… You deserve better.”

  
  


“I get to decide what I deserve, don’t I?” Hermione asked, staring up at him. His black eyes like deep dark pools, his skin like alabaster, his pale bottom lip that was between his teeth. Severus looked as if he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. It wasn’t the world on his shoulders, but it was the weight of secrets, half-truths, worry, and shame, none of which should be carried.

“I will tell you, then,” Severus sighed, shutting his eyes. His hand went to her wrist wrapping around it, clutching it tightly. “I am…I am…I am…”

“It doesn’t matter what you are, and if it helps I have already figured it out.”

“It does,” he whispered. “Can I just write it down? Actually no, I will just spit it out.”

“I am a transsexual. Trans man. Transgender person?” Severus muttered, clearly uncomfortable. “I have more fingers on one hand than people I have told this to. And honestly that’s kind of sad to me. Bloody pathetic, even. So desperate to be like everyone else. That I created a monster out of a molehill.”

“That’s why you called yourself the half-blood Prince, isn’t?” Hermione asked. “I shouldn’t press or dig, it isn’t my place, but I always wondered. Somethings well. Now don’t look at me like that… I think part of me has always known you were my mate, and I pay attention to little things most people wouldn’t bother to.”

“We are a pair, aren’t we?” He asked, his tone filled with a tiny bit of venom, though she did not take it personal. “Bloody pair.”

“And, you know what?” She said, leaning into him closer, nearly kissing him. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Hermione kissed him and a large part of her knew this was the first time the man, her mate, her Alpha had truly let someone in for a very long time. And what a wonderful gift that was.

They had a long road ahead of them, but they would travel it together.

  
  


**************************

Time passed quickly and slowly it had only been a few months, but it had also felt like they had been together forever. The love they felt for one another was rarely spoken, but as strong as an oak tree. The most powerful of things are the words you do not speak, the ones you leave unspoken. The most powerful of love need not silly wishes of love and desire. It’s one that you can feel with every single bit of your mind, heart and your soul. That’s how they ended up here. Standing before one another on their wedding night. It was just a thing that Hermione knew Severus had done just for her. To him it was a rather silly display of emotions.

Hermione insisted that they didn’t have to do this or if they did they could have a quiet little wedding in a chapel by the sea. Severus insisted that you only got married once. Luna, silly, joyful,  _ strange _ Luna told her to just accept it and move on. Sometimes it was best just to accept that someone wanted to do something to make you happy even if it made them uncomfortable.

The wedding had been beautiful, with violets and white roses, but the party was over, their dinner finished and all the guests had left. Hermione sat on the bed in the hotel room trying to take off the wretched high heeled shoes Ginny insisted that she wear - they were pretty she was willing to admit, but they were far from comfortable. Hermione found herself haphazardly throwing them across the room.

The dress she wore had been her mother’s . M agic  was  used to take it in, and  to  remove the stains from the time that had passed. Hermione knew the papers would say tomorrow that Harry Potter’s friend had not only worn a Muggle wedding dress but an old one that. Not that she cared, if Hermione was being honest with herself the dress was the least of her worries. Surely the other possible headline would be war hero marries Death Eater. They tended to forget the former part when their goal was to be truly cruel. There were worse options though, secrets that Severus wanted to keep truly buried. Hermione didn’t care if someone knew, but it was not her place to decide - it wasn’t even her place to truly care. It was not her secret; it was Severus’. 

No matter how hard it seemed you worked or tried, some got to escape their pasts with not even a mention of it, while others it seemed to be brought up at every bloody turn. Hermione sighed, this was a happy day the concerns of stupidity did not matter.

Severus sat behind her slowly undoing the buttons of her dress. Shoving her wild ,  rather unmanageable curls to the side ,  he began kissing her neck. It felt right, it felt like a puzzle piece clicking into place. This instant was like nothing else. Very few things were easy in their lives, but this was one of them. They did not need words to talk about this. This feeling was why fate had tied them together - a language that only hearts could speak and hear.

His hands tugged the dress down her body, setting it softly onto the floor. Hermione could tell her husband was comfortable, at ease even ;  something the man was so rarely. Turning to face him , she  reached her hand out  to  brush against his cheek. Severus sighed softly ; his long, even today  still  slightly potion-stained fingers undoing the buttons of his waistcoat. He threw it gently onto the chair,  his  vest and shirt following quickly.

Severus averted his eyes from her, hair falling into his face.

“We don’t have to do this, you know that right?” Hermione asked, softly. “I know sometimes this is hard for you.” She rested her head into her hand.

Severus pulled Hermione close to answer her question; holding her tightly to also remind himself that he was in fact okay. Severus undid her bra, kissing her neck, working his fingers over her nipple causing it to pebble under his fingers. Twisting it ever so slightly, Hermione hissed at the feeling, arching into his touch. Severus’ fingers splayed across her ribcage. His touch was like a live wire underneath her skin.

Hermione went to work on his slacks, undoing them. Severus tugged them off fully, before Hermione could contemplate what was going on his long fingers were hooked into the sides of her knickers, the white lace which she put so much thought into were thrown haphazardly across the room.

Severus laid her on the pillows of the bed as if she were the most lovely thing he had ever seen. His hand tracing slow patterns on her belly, dipping further and further with each pass. As quick as a thought Severus leaned over, he started kissing her inner thighs. His mouth went to the place between her thighs. Her hands found their way to his soft inky black hair.

Hermione’s fingers went to the bite mark that she had long ago given the man. It was the sign clear as day that this man belonged to her and the one her own collar bone showed that belonged to him. This was far clearer than any wedding band.

  
  


**************************

A few years later, epilogue

Hermione and Severus stood hand in hand, they had been waiting on this. It was something that they both had wanted and something they both had dreamed of in their own way. The mistress of the of Orphanage walked in with a child, with curls the color of the darkest of nights. They were in patched clothes that reminded Severus of his own childhood. It caused bile to rise up in his throat. This is the reason they were here. 

“Hello,” Hermione said with a smile as she knelt. “My name is Hermione and this is Severus, my mate. What do you want to be called?”

“I don’t like my name, it doesn’t fit me,” the child said softly. “I don’t even know how to explain it. Ms. Thomas doesn’t like that though.”

“You are our child now,” Severus remarked. “So it matters little what Ms. Thomas thinks.”

“Rowan,” he mumbled. “I want to be called Rowan, is that okay?”

“Rowan is a beautiful name,” the new parents said together, looking at each other. This child had been left behind by most couples, hidden away from others both for the behaviors that were clearly accidental magic and because they would not conform to their gender. Harry was the one who noticed Rowan, promising himself that there would not be another Tom Riddle in any shape or form.

The child would learn one day who their biological parents were, but only when the time was right. He was the son of Bellatrix Lestrange and a man they cared not to try to figure out who it was. It was safer that way with, who were the possibilities. Neither of them cared, Severus of all people understood that it mattered not what you were born, but what you grew to be.

And what the three would grow to be was a family and that’s all that mattered in the end. 

  
  



End file.
